200 trips down...Rating is...

4.91, but I can't imagine why anyone would give me less than 5*. I always get there on-time (once I get a ping, I move to the location, I don't sit around and I'm always waiting for a ping, not doing something else beforehand). I always have bottled water (although I am going to stop this, I've given out 20 so far and not one person tipped for a bottle of water. I thought for sure one person would. Not a single one). I did get tips from people who appreciated the professional, clean, and inexpensive service, though.

I am a customer service master (worked in banking for 10-years) so I know I am good, there. But I guess 4.91 is still pretty good. I know we need to stay above 4.7, which essentially means all 5* each time (lol).

Finally received a sweet tip! $40 for waiting for a guy who was planning on taking a long trip (2 hr & 30 min) but decided he wasn't going to be able to go after all that night. But I took him to a location a few miles away and the pax was very grateful I waited 40-minutes and he tipped me $40 (So, some people truly appreciate the seamless service).

*Late night cancels*

Who can explain these? I get about 3 a night when it's 1:30 AM or later. They request, I accept and then an immediate cancel. Why do they do this?

*The self-conscious paranoid pax*

Why did you turn here?! Oh, why did you go down that street?!

(These are always funny. GPS almost always knows a better way, as google maps goes off of time and distance) It's almost always some young Guber pax that is worried they will be charged "more" (worst case, $1? lol). These pax are funny to me.

I always say, "I normally follow GPS but if you'd like me to go a certain way I can do that, I don't mind." Whenever they tell me to go a different way I see the miles trip on Google Maps go up lol

Example
ETA: 2:45 PM
Miles: 3.6 Mi

Pax: "No, don't go down David, turn left at Main St, instead"

Me: "Okay, sounds good."

I turn down Main St instead of listening to the GPS computer...
New updated trip:

ETA: 2:47 PM
Miles: 4.1 Mi

lol Every. Time.

I've only had GPS do a funny move twice, (it usually does it when GPS doesn't realize a spot you can u-turn at). 2 out of 200+ trips. I will trust Google Maps lol

*Dropping pin that is inaccurate*

I always let customers know that if they type in the name of the building they're at we can always get to them quicker because the pin drop isn't always accurate. Uber does NOTHIGN to educate the pax so it's up to us Independent Contractor's to help them (politely, and professionally).

Who can explain these? I get about 3 a night when it's 1:30 AM or later. They request, I accept and then an immediate cancel. Why do they do this?

Click to expand...

I may have found something to help explain the immediate cancel issue:

I recently had a delayed late night cancel (pax cancelled right as I arrived at pickup location); this was followed by an immediate new request from a different passenger at another nearby location. During the trip, the passenger had mentioned that their initial request had been assigned to another driver for several minutes - but then the app simply switched the driver on the fly without notifying them. Apparently the original driver was a woman, and this caused some confusion when I arrived until they looked at the app and found a different driver picking them up.

Perhaps these late night instant cancels are the Uber system juggling different drivers, or they are sending multiple drivers the same passenger requests, and sorting out which driver gets the ride when multiple drivers accept.

Trying to figure drunks out is an exercise in futility. Although some pax cycle through drivers, cancelling and requesting until they get a car that meets their standards, or a driver who is the right race for them, or they're hoping to score an XL vehicle for what they think will be an X fare.

Trying to figure drunks out is an exercise in futility. Although some pax cycle through drivers, cancelling and requesting until they get a car that meets their standards, or a driver who is the right race for them, or they're hoping to score an XL vehicle for what they think will be an X fare.

Click to expand...

Maybe the lucky XL move, but I'm a good looking white guy, so they should be safe with me haha (kidding of course).

4.91, but I can't imagine why anyone would give me less than 5*. I always get there on-time (once I get a ping, I move to the location, I don't sit around and I'm always waiting for a ping, not doing something else beforehand). I always have bottled water (although I am going to stop this, I've given out 20 so far and not one person tipped for a bottle of water. I thought for sure one person would. Not a single one). I did get tips from people who appreciated the professional, clean, and inexpensive service, though.

I am a customer service master (worked in banking for 10-years) so I know I am good, there. But I guess 4.91 is still pretty good. I know we need to stay above 4.7, which essentially means all 5* each time (lol).

Finally received a sweet tip! $40 for waiting for a guy who was planning on taking a long trip (2 hr & 30 min) but decided he wasn't going to be able to go after all that night. But I took him to a location a few miles away and the pax was very grateful I waited 40-minutes and he tipped me $40 (So, some people truly appreciate the seamless service).

*Late night cancels*

Who can explain these? I get about 3 a night when it's 1:30 AM or later. They request, I accept and then an immediate cancel. Why do they do this?

*The self-conscious paranoid pax*

Why did you turn here?! Oh, why did you go down that street?!

(These are always funny. GPS almost always knows a better way, as google maps goes off of time and distance) It's almost always some young Guber pax that is worried they will be charged "more" (worst case, $1? lol). These pax are funny to me.

I always say, "I normally follow GPS but if you'd like me to go a certain way I can do that, I don't mind." Whenever they tell me to go a different way I see the miles trip on Google Maps go up lol

Example
ETA: 2:45 PM
Miles: 3.6 Mi

Pax: "No, don't go down David, turn left at Main St, instead"

Me: "Okay, sounds good."

I turn down Main St instead of listening to the GPS computer...
New updated trip:

ETA: 2:47 PM
Miles: 4.1 Mi

lol Every. Time.

I've only had GPS do a funny move twice, (it usually does it when GPS doesn't realize a spot you can u-turn at). 2 out of 200+ trips. I will trust Google Maps lol

*Dropping pin that is inaccurate*

I always let customers know that if they type in the name of the building they're at we can always get to them quicker because the pin drop isn't always accurate. Uber does NOTHIGN to educate the pax so it's up to us Independent Contractor's to help them (politely, and professionally).

i will venture a guess: group of say 4 that will be riding together send 4 requests at same time and take the first driver that shows up and cancel the rest. it's the same thing they did here when i drove a cab. call 3 different cab companies and take the first to show up, but wouldnt bother cancelling because they wouldnt be charged. same bull****, different platform.

i will venture a guess: group of say 4 that will be riding together send 4 requests at same time and take the first driver that shows up and cancel the rest. it's the same thing they did here when i drove a cab. call 3 different cab companies and take the first to show up, but wouldnt bother cancelling because they wouldnt be charged. same bull****, different platform.

Click to expand...

Those bastards better not be doing that ****. They are creating a surge for other customers though haha

I couldn't figure out why my rating was below a 5 either. I even emailed Uber and he walked me through it and told me 500 rides was the benchmark. I've had all good rides, or what I felt were. I had 7 yesterday and came out with a 4.0. I know not all rated but one girl, who was drunk, didn't log in her correct address and changed where she wanted to go. Since I didn't have it in my GPS I had to get directions from her. I'm guessing she rated me lower since I couldn't read her mind. The rating will drive me nuts if I think about it too much. Some people will never give a 5 just like a teacher won't give an A+ - always room for improvement. I've decided, If I don't get a tip, no 5 for the rider. I was giving them all 5's until this girl.

4.91, but I can't imagine why anyone would give me less than 5*. I always get there on-time (once I get a ping, I move to the location, I don't sit around and I'm always waiting for a ping, not doing something else beforehand). I always have bottled water (although I am going to stop this, I've given out 20 so far and not one person tipped for a bottle of water. I thought for sure one person would. Not a single one). I did get tips from people who appreciated the professional, clean, and inexpensive service, though.

I am a customer service master (worked in banking for 10-years) so I know I am good, there. But I guess 4.91 is still pretty good. I know we need to stay above 4.7, which essentially means all 5* each time (lol).

Finally received a sweet tip! $40 for waiting for a guy who was planning on taking a long trip (2 hr & 30 min) but decided he wasn't going to be able to go after all that night. But I took him to a location a few miles away and the pax was very grateful I waited 40-minutes and he tipped me $40 (So, some people truly appreciate the seamless service).

*Late night cancels*

Who can explain these? I get about 3 a night when it's 1:30 AM or later. They request, I accept and then an immediate cancel. Why do they do this?

*The self-conscious paranoid pax*

Why did you turn here?! Oh, why did you go down that street?!

(These are always funny. GPS almost always knows a better way, as google maps goes off of time and distance) It's almost always some young Guber pax that is worried they will be charged "more" (worst case, $1? lol). These pax are funny to me.

I always say, "I normally follow GPS but if you'd like me to go a certain way I can do that, I don't mind." Whenever they tell me to go a different way I see the miles trip on Google Maps go up lol

Example
ETA: 2:45 PM
Miles: 3.6 Mi

Pax: "No, don't go down David, turn left at Main St, instead"

Me: "Okay, sounds good."

I turn down Main St instead of listening to the GPS computer...
New updated trip:

ETA: 2:47 PM
Miles: 4.1 Mi

lol Every. Time.

I've only had GPS do a funny move twice, (it usually does it when GPS doesn't realize a spot you can u-turn at). 2 out of 200+ trips. I will trust Google Maps lol

*Dropping pin that is inaccurate*

I always let customers know that if they type in the name of the building they're at we can always get to them quicker because the pin drop isn't always accurate. Uber does NOTHIGN to educate the pax so it's up to us Independent Contractor's to help them (politely, and professionally).

Click to expand...

The uber rating system is ridiculous and can never reflect the good job most driver do day in day out and am not saying bad drivers don't exist . Imagine a case of someone sitting at home and requesting a ride for her daughter to be picked up from school, how would someone like that rate the ride experience when she's not even the one taking the ride. I use to bother myself about the ratings but now I really don't care bcuz have had conversations with riders and most of them don't even know about the rating. Uber just don't value their drivers and all they do is copy and paste us emails that looks like algebra and calculus.

I always let customers know that if they type in the name of the building they're at we can always get to them quicker because the pin drop isn't always accurate. Uber does NOTHIGN to educate the pax so it's up to us Independent Contractor's to help them (politely, and professionally).

Click to expand...

This is more complicated. Good move on the using of business/building names. Problem is the GPS can still lead you astray. This is because the longitude and latitude assigned to a pin at an address can be poorly assigned. This isn't necessarily Uber or Lyft's fault as location data was written long before they came along. When you tap navigate on your driver app it doesn't relay the address you see in the driver app to the GPS, instead it relays the longitude and latitude the pin is set at to the GPS program. Happens all the time with addresses at Commonwealth Avenue here in Boston. The pins are set too far to rear of building so GPS will lead you to the public alley behind the building rather than the front where the address is. If you find yourself being directed to the wrong side of a building you can test this by stopping your navigation and manually entering the address, you'll see you get correct directions ending in front of the address.

I do wish they would reprogram to have the driver apps to relay the address to GPS rather than the lat and long, but then drivers wouldn't be able to easily find riders in large lots/plazas. Some hybrid option would be great.